The Disability Book Archive

[ID: Cover for the book ‘The Real Boy’ by Anne Ursu. The title is written at the top in large white capitals. The author’s name is written in the lower right corner in smaller yellow capitals. Cover art shows a young boy standing in the entry way to a bright, cluttered room. Behind him, a darker, blue room, with two cats. There is a large ornate door to his right. /end]

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Content Warning:

• Death
• Illness
• Bullying
• Emotional Abuse
• Animal Injury
• Animals in Danger
• Classism
• Ableism

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Summary:

The Real Boy, Anne Ursu’s follow-up to her widely acclaimed and beloved middle grade fantasy Breadcrumbs, is a spellbinding tale of the power we all wield, great and small.

On an island on the edge of an immense sea there is a city, a forest, and a boy named Oscar. Oscar is a shop boy for the most powerful magician in the village, and spends his days in a small room in the dark cellar of his master’s shop grinding herbs and dreaming of the wizards who once lived on the island generations ago. Oscar’s world is small, but he likes it that way. The real world is vast, strange, and unpredictable. And Oscar does not quite fit in it.

But now that world is changing. Children in the city are falling ill, and something sinister lurks in the forest. Oscar has long been content to stay in his small room in the cellar, comforted in the knowledge that the magic that flows from the forest will keep his island safe. Now even magic may not be enough to save it.

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Notes:

All cats live in this book.

The MC of this book is never confirmed to be autistic on page, but it is very, very much accepted by people who have read this that he is. Likewise, this interview with Kidlit suggests that Ursu’s characterisation of Oscar and the audience interpretation of his neurodivergence was intended.

Here is a review by Corinne Duyvis.

Here is a link to Ursu’s website.

Here is a link to McGuire’s website.

There is an audiobook.

There is an ebook. There is a kindle edition.

A list of awards this book has received and/or been nominated for:

• National Book Award Nominee (2013)
• Bank Street Children’s Book Committee Best Book of the Year
• Sakura Medal Finalist
• Minnesota Book Award Finalist (2014)
• Horace Mann Upstanders Children’s Book Award Winner
• Junior Library Guild Selection
• An IndieBound Indie Next Pick

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Archivist Comments:

Books with an implied disability are always a grey area when it comes to the archive, especially if the author themself does not have it, seems reluctant to refer to it as such or only “confirms” it some time after the book is published and fan theories have had enough time to fester and spread. However, my issues with adding this book have been quelled. It seems that the author was very purposeful and careful with the way in which she write Oscar. She had experience with young children and autism (due to her son being diagnosed with it) and seems to have undertaken a great amount of research before and during writing the book.

Though not without it’s faults- with people criticising the promising but ultimately lacking worldbuilding of the book, some deeming it confusing, and others lamenting at the lack of development surrounding the characters’ pasts- the book seems to be one that has resonated and become quite loved amongst the people who have read it.

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